AMBIGUITY
Something
that does not have a single clear meaning: something that is ambiguous. In
ambiguity, specific and distinct interpretations are permitted (although some
may not be immediately apparent), whereas with information that is vague, it is
difficult to form any interpretation at the desired level of specificity. The
context in which an ambiguous word is used often makes it evident which of the
meanings is intended. If, for instance, someone says "I buried $100 in the
bank", most people would not think someone used a shovel to dig in the
mud. However, some linguistic contexts do not provide sufficient information to
disambiguate a used word. Ambiguous words or statements lead to vagueness and
confusion, and shape the basis for instances of unintentional humor. Although
people are sometimes said to be ambiguous in how they use language, ambiguity is,
strictly speaking, a property of linguistic expressions. A word, phrase, or
sentence is ambiguous if it has more than one meaning. Obviously this
definition does not say what meanings are or what it is for an expression to
have one (or more than one). For a particular language, this information is
provided by a grammar, which systematically pairs forms with meanings,
ambiguous forms with more than one meaning.
Here
are some examples of Ambiguity:
- A good life depends on a liver – Liver may be an organ or simply a living person.
- Foreigners are hunting dogs – It is unclear whether dogs were being hunted or foreigners are being spoken of as dogs.
- Each of us saw her duck – It is not clear whether the word “duck” refers to an action of ducking or a duck that is a bird.
- The passerby helps dog bite victim – Is the passerby helping a dog bite someone? Or is he helping a person bitten by a dog? It’s not clear.
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